Natural Talents
by KPfeifferpack
Summary: Just why WAS Giles so different in S7 and why did he leave in S6?  Maybe something like this?


_This is a short "might have been" after Buffy was resurrected_

"You're a very stupid girl." Giles was washing up in the kitchen and had had quite enough of Willow's smug satisfaction at having resurrected Buffy. He could see her pride nearly emblazoned on her forehead over her accomplishment and it worried him to no end.

"What? Giles ..." Willow looked as if she had been slapped.

Giles turned and faced the girl who had harnessed more power than any novice witch he had ever heard of in his many years with the Council. "Do you have any idea what you've done? The forces you've harnassed, the lines you've crossed?"

"I thought you'd be ... impressed, or, or something." This was too much, first no thank you from Buffy and now Giles seemed to be angry with her.

"Oh, don't worry, you've made a very deep impression. Of everyone here, you were the one I trusted most to respect the forces of nature." Giles looked completely disappointed in Willow.

"Are you saying you don't trust me?" Willow was completely confused and more than a little angry at the way the conversation was going.

"Think what you've done to Buffy!" Giles had felt his heart break looking at the sad face of his slayer/surrogate daughter. Much as he loved her and was torn apart with her death, he could see a deep unhappiness with Buffy that was not there before her death.

"I brought her back!" Willow slipped into full anger, all hurt feelings being replaced with a white hot rage.

"At incredible risk." Giles was astonished, "My God, didn't the girl have a clue of what she had done", he thought to himself.

"Risk? Of what? Making her deader?" Willow was ready to throw something at the Watcher.

Perhaps the child had no idea. "Of killing us all, unleashing hell on earth. I mean, shall I go on?"

Willow stood up and faced Giles. "No Giles, I did what I had to do. I did what nobody else COULD do." How dare he look down his proper British nose at all she had accomplished!

"Oh, there are others in this world who can do what you did. You just don't want to meet them." Giles wondered at her overinflated view of her powers. Surely she didn't really feel herself so superior?

"No probably not, but ... well they're the bad guys. I'm not a bad guy. I brought Buffy back into this world., a-and maybe the word you should be looking for is 'congratulations'." It stung to have Giles put her in a category that smacked of evil and mayhem.

Giles tried to gain a hold on his temper. "Having Buffy back in the world makes me feel ... indescribably wonderful, but I wouldn't congratulate you if you jumped off a cliff and happened to survive." He really needed Willow to see the seriousness of her actions.

"That's not what I did, Giles."

He lost his hold on on the anger then, was the girl that thick? "You were lucky!"

Willow felt a sense of righteous anger at the assault on her abilities and accomplishment. "I wasn't lucky. I was AMAZING and how would you know, you weren't here!" She nearly smiled at having scored a direct hit in the guilt zone. "There, take that Mr. high and mighty", she thought.

"If I had been, I'd have bloody well stopped you. The magics you channeled are more ferocious and primal than anything you can hope to understand and you are lucky to be alive, you RANK, ARROGANT AMATEUR!" Giles had to get out of the room as soon as possible. He actually had the urge to smack the girl before him!

"You're right." Willow stopped Giles in his tracks with that comment. "The magics I used ARE very powerful. And maybe it's not such a good idea for you to piss. Me. Off." The challenge was heavy in the air between the two sorcerers, charged with the electricity of power and emotion.

"Come on Giles", She tried to sound consiliatory. "I I don't want to fight. I ... let's not, okay? I'll think about what you said, and you ... try to be happy Buffy's back." Willow smiled at Giles with her mouth, but not her eyes.

And Willow DID think about it, and think about it and think about it. She thought about it as she magicked her way back into the top grade point average at the University, as she made Tara forget her anger at her when she had used magic to try to locate a missing Dawn, as she waited in vain for the simple, earned, "Thank you" from Buffy, from them all. She thought deeply about it. As the wise elders were prone to say, thoughts are things...

"If all Giles is going to do is criticize me, I wish he'd stayed in England. I mean what good is he really doing here? Anya is running the Magic Box. Buffy's the Slayer, she can handle her own life, we all can. He's just jealous because I've surpassed him with my powers, that's all." Willow was thinking again, as she had promised. Of course her thoughts were far different from the ones Giles had hoped to inspire.

She was working on mixing ingredients for a spell to offer Buffy to help keep Dawn in line. The girl was getting completely out of hand. A quick bit of magic cure all and Dawn would be the least of Buffy's problems from now on. Really, Willow could not understand why her friends were so stubborn on the subject of magic. All she wanted was to make life better for them all. How could they question her ability to put things to right, after all, she had even freed Buffy from a hell dimension. Buffy's body had even been restored as lovely as before the grave had its way with it!

"Giles needs to get a life. He needs to just let us be the grown ups we are, especially Buffy. Get out of the way and make room for the next generation. He should just go home to England and be the big important Watcher at the Council headquarters and leave us alone! He's not Buffy's father and she doesn't need a Watcher any more."

Willow was so intent on her project that she didn't see the flash of light behind and to the left side of her. Nor did she see the smile on the horned being watching her in approval. She didn't hear the applause in the halls of Arash Maharr as D'Hoffryn offered the congratulations Willow so craved. "That's my girl! I knew you had it in you. I've never seen such a natural talent as in this lovely human. Sooner or later she'll have to admit she belongs with us."

~fin


End file.
